Dive bar Subway Inn not going down without eviction fight

NEW YORK (AP/PIX11) — A dive bar that’s been open on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for almost eight decades is facing eviction, and the family that owns it is asking for help to keep that from happening.

The owners of the Subway Inn on 60th Street near Lexington Avenue say they got a call last month telling them building owner World-Wide Holdings Corp. wanted them out by Aug. 20.

World-Wide owns much of the block where the bar is, across the street from Bloomingdale’s. The real estate developer issued a statement saying it had always made it clear that redeveloping the area was the intended goal.

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Steven Salinas, son of bar owner Marcello Salinas spoke on Thursday, pleading for help keeping their family business open.

“I was taught in the service that America was the land of opportunity,” Steven Salinas said. “Not a place where families that have worked their entire lives to build a business would be bulldozed by rich investors looking to make a quick buck.”

Salinas talked about Subway Inn as a vessel for his immigrant family to achieve the “American dream.”

“I served honorably in the U.S. Army for nearly 13 years,” Salinas said. “Now my family is asking me to honorably serve them … we’re calling on you to ensure our home does not get destroyed.”